Electronic commerce and bureaucracies

The main focuses of attention with respect to electronic commerce are standardisation, trust and security, electronic signature, fiscal aspects and legal and privacy issues. Until now, the impacts of electronic commerce on the structure and functioning of bureaucracies, especially within public administration, are grossly neglected. A sketch is given of electronic commerce in the pre-implementation, implementation and post-implementation policy phases. We will see that a rich menu of applications has been created in each of these phases. Amongst others, pro-active policy making, inter-active policymaking, and co-production of policies through ICT applications are discussed. Five trends, and their implications for the development of bureaucracies, are presented. The general outcome of the presentation will be that the public administrations of today will change in all their essential functional and structural dimensions.